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Meanwhile, Dassault’s Falcon 7X, which first flew on May 5, 2005, has been airborne almost daily, accumulating almost 15 hours of flight time as of mid-May. The design, which features what the company calls the first “fly-by-wire” bizjet, is yet another refinement of the Dassault’s three-engine philosophy and incorporates levels of technology similar to other […]

Dassault Aviation’s facility in Bordeaux Merignac, France, was once again the site — on May 13, 2005 — of a first flight, this time of the company’s new Falcon 900DX trijet. Test pilots Etienne Faurdessus and Philippe Narbey were at the controls for the flight, which lasted more than three hours. The -DX, the latest […]

…the next issue of AVweb‘s BizAVflash will be e-mailed to you on May 25. See you then…

Chinese media last month reported that the country’s first homegrown private aircraft has completed its final test flights and will soon go into mass production. According to published reports, the Xiaoying, or “Eaglet,” 500 made some 339 flights over the past nine months as part of its flight-test program, which was conducted in Xian. Some […]

Bombardier Aerospace last month announced the entry into service of the first completed Bombardier Global 5000 business jet. The aircraft departed Montreal on Monday, April 18, 2005, and is now in service with a corporate operator based in the Middle East. Launched in February 2002, the Bombardier Global 5000 can, under certain conditions, feature a […]

Sentient Jet, a leading membership-based charter broker, last month announced forming a strategic alliance with UK-based Air Partner, one of the largest private-jet services companies in the world. According to U.S.-based Sentient, Air Partner and Sentient will now cooperate to provide all of their customers a range of private-jet membership and charter options, depending on […]

Not too be left out of the foregoing list of initial test flights and customer deliveries, Cessna last month celebrated its own first: the first flight of the Citation Mustang, the company’s entry in the upcoming very light jet (VLJ) sweepstakes. Piloted by Scotty Jergenson and Dave Bonifield, the Citation Mustang prototype made a 141-minute […]

Embraer earlier this month announced it plans to enter the market for jets both lighter and smaller than its large-cabin Legacy offering with models designed for the “very light” and “light” categories. Embraer is committed to making long-term investments in this business to offer revolutionary products and completely integrated solutions to a sophisticated customer base. […]

Gulfstream Aerospace this month also announced delivery of the first G450. The G450 is an updated version of the GIV-SP, sharing many of the features of the company’s top-of-the-line G550. Both aircraft feature the exclusive PlaneView cockpit, which includes four large flight displays and Honeywells Primus Epic avionics and Visual Guidance System (VGS). The G450 […]

It’s that time of year: Gulfstream Aerospace earlier this month announced the first flight of its G150, a mid-sized, wide-cabin offering designed and built in collaboration with Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) in Tel Aviv, Israel. Flown by IAI chief test pilot Ronen Shapira and G150 project test pilot Yoram Geva, the G150 took off from […]